I very rarely do book haul posts but as many of you know, I had the pleasure of book shopping with Simon from StuckinaBook last Saturday, and his post was a great reminder of his excellent buys and the day itself. So without further ado:

I need to say from the start that I am going to misallocate some of these books to the wrong bookshops!  I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned on the blog that I’m planning a move this year, but it means my constant preoccupation with utterly dull DIY/house selling/house buying has made my already poor memory absolutely diabolical and completely destroyed my capacity for nouns 😀

Some of them I’m certain about, and we started the day in Greenwich Oxfam, where I know I bought two Virago essay collections, Flesh and the Mirror: Essays on the Art of Angela Carter edited by Lorna Sage; and The Strange Necessity: Essays and Reviews by Rebecca West. Both writers I find intriguing, sometimes alienating, always interesting! I’m looking forward to these.

And already we run into my terrible memory because I think I bought three books here, but I can’t remember which one was the third! No doubt I’ll claim it came from another bookshop later…

We were so lucky with the weather, it was a gorgeous sunny day so we walked through part of Greenwich Park over to Bookshop on the Heath (Blackheath). I think these two areas are so pretty, some of my favourite parts of south London. This is where I bought Cucumber Sandwiches: A Novella and Three Stories by J.I.M Stewart, whom I’ve enjoyed as Michael Innes writing GA crime stories. I was enticed by the title (yes I am that shallow) and the lairy yellow Gollancz jacket which I always enjoy (really shallow). I also got Living on Yesterday by Edith Templeton which I didn’t know at all but according to the jacket it’s a Bohemian social comedy highly rated by Anita Brookner, which sounds very tempting. I’m pretty sure that’s all I bought here because the prices are so eye-watering for a lot of the stock, but a lovely shop nonetheless.

We had lunch in Blackheath – although it was busy we found a table at Madeleine’s Creperie and thus fortified we walked to Halcyon Books. I remembered (possibly incorrectly, the theme of this post) there being more fiction hardbacks, but they still had a very reasonable selection of paperbacks. Cal by Bernard McLaverty was tempting after I recently enjoyed Midwinter Break so much, and I was surprised to find a copy of Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman by EW Hornung, because I’d looked online for some collected stories about this gentleman thief a little while ago and struggled to find what I wanted. This is lined up for when I next need a light read. And I think it was here I bought Ravinder Randhawa’s A Wicked Old Woman. Having cleared out my Women’s Press books a few decades ago in a misguided attempt to control my book acquisition, I really regretted it and now buy them back when I see them. The downside is that the glue TWP used is giving up the ghost these days, so they are definitely not a public transport read, for fear of losing the pages forever!

Then a bus trip through some less salubrious streets than those in Greenwich and Blackheath but perhaps more typical of south London… I hadn’t been to Crofton Books before but I think it’s possible they have many gems, if you can scale the stacks to get to them! I still managed to come away with Cindie by Jean Devanny (I’m at the point in my VMC collecting where I always seem to see the same books, but it must be my imagination because I did very well with VMCs this day); David Blaize by EF Benson because I keep meaning to read more by the Mapp and Lucia author and this is compared to Wodehouse on the back (but so much is…) Also Apple of my Eye by the irrepressible Helene Hanff – I’d been looking at Vivian Gornick’s NYC memoirs and was definitely in a New York mood! Also I like the dated, kitschy cover (my taste is as bad as my memory) which as it turns out is from the year I was born – not noted for its good taste, except in babies:

Finally to Kirkdale Books where I picked up some more VMCs; The Playroom by Olivia Manning which Simon had mentioned earlier in the day, and The Orchid House by Phyllis Shand Allfrey.  Also in similar livery but published by Abandoned Bookshop, Appius and Virginia by GE Trevelyan. I’ve been really enjoying the reissues of this author from Boiler House Press’ Recovered Books imprint so hopes are high.

Train cancellations meant that rather than travel from the train station right by Kirkdale Books, we walked to the next nearest, which had one of those free libraries in the waiting room. (There was no donation pot so I need to pop by and drop off a book). Here I picked up a curiosity, The Champagne Sandwich by Christian Miller. I’ve never heard of it but its from 1969 and apparently the author’s only novel, although she also wrote stories and memoir. It sounds silly and fun, about a mother and two daughters living with their dog and a canary in a London flat. The back flap of the jacket tells me Miller had “a somewhat erratic education” on her childhood Highland estate and was a debutante who studied engineering. I’m intrigued…

So, two books with sandwiches in the title, two with cricket scenes on the front covers despite me knowing very little of the game, a handful of VMCs and some novellas snuck in there too… which brings me to May plans. I’m not at all confident I can do Novella a Day in May this year, I haven’t done any advance reading to give myself a buffer and halfway through the month I need to move the contents of my flat into the bedrooms for floor repairs to take place. But… I do have lots of novellas I’m really keen to read. So I think I’m going to go for it, but probably won’t post every day, even if I read a novella every day. Simon has taken this approach previously with his Book a Day in May posts, so for this idea, and for a lovely bookish shopping day, thank you Simon!

To end, back where we began (almost). Deptford is next to Greenwich and has some similarly historic and beautiful buildings, including townhouses. This one is Queen Anne, relatively untouched and stuffed, stuffed full of books (which admittedly I couldn’t read, I think they’re mostly in medieval Italian.) Sadly very much out of my price range but I enjoyed the look round and the sheer volume of books is aspirational – hopefully this post demonstrates I’m well on my way…